Smith, Sherman Debate Landfill's Financial Health

Bethlehem Mayor Ken Smith told City Council last night that the administration is planning to break even in 1996 on municipal trash and the landfill.

Smith said he hoped the landfill would produce enough revenues to cover a $2.2 million debt payment.

However, Wendell Sherman, Public Works director, said he projected 1996 total revenue of $10.5 million at the landfill, including $6 million in landfill gate receipts and $4.5 million from other sources. He said expenses would be about $11 million.

"The difference is that you have a loss of $500,000," Sherman said.

Council argued that a better marketing strategy is needed to make the landfill profitable. Smith said the landfill is a totally independent operation and shouldn't be supported by city taxpayers.

"All that money that is being spent at the landfill is being generated by user fees," he said. "The purpose of the enterprise fund is to keep it separate from taxpayers." The city has cut tipping fees sharply to lure haulers, he said.

In other business, Smith said the dam leaks in the Penn Forest Reservoir still are a concern to Bethlehem.

Council has allotted $150,000 in the budget to keep the dam running smoothly. Smith said the administration is working on a bond to finance the dam's repairs.

While taxes look stable for the time being, city water rates are on the way up. Officials expect a rate increase to come in March or April. That could be aggravated by the tens of millions of dollars it will cost to fix the Penn Forest dam.

Repair work is to begin in the spring of 1997 and is expected to last more than a year, so the city's water woes may hang on for some time.

"The Penn Forest dam ultimately is a separate issue," Smith said. "And with any luck we'll get state and federal funding to off-set the cost."

Penn Forest, one of the city's two dams in Carbon County, was partially drained early this year when leaks were discovered.